In 3GPP R7 a new solution for Policy and Charging Control (PCC) was introduced. The PCC architecture comprises the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) and the PCEF (Policy and Charging Enforcement Function).
The PCC architecture provides a service delivery control mechanism of the service flows in the Gateway (GW)-nodes such as the Gateway General Packet Radio Service Support Node (GGSN), or other Internet Protocol Connectivity Area Network (IP-CAN) gateways, such as Packet Data Gateway (PDG). Policy related functions provided and/or handled by PCC include Quality of Service (QoS) control, gating, session events and charging control.
The PCRF is able to apply different types of policies for different users and different services. This policy decision can be based on for instance subscription information, current access, such as Radio Access Technology (RAT) type. The RAT type parameter indicates which radio access technology a specific user is using at the moment, when using for instance the networks Universal mobile telecommunications system Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), Global system for mobile communication Enhanced data rates for global evolution Radio Access Network (GERAN), Wireless Local Area network (WLAN), and Global Area Network (GAN).
Content providers may put restrictions on which access technology certain content can be streamed or delivered on. One service provider may for instance buy the rights to stream or deliver for example the soccer world championship on WCDMA, whereas an other service provider may buy the right to stream or deliver it on WLAN.
Allowed access technology types for a specific service may be specified and provisioned as static policies in the PCRF.
However, this brings the drawback such as that new policies and rules for allowed access technology types must be provisioned in the PCRF as soon as a new service is launched or deployed. This may typically be performed by a Operations and Maintenance interface towards the PCRF.
Locating the logic directly in the application server means that a specific solution per service is provided. A more generic approach is desired.
In addition, inconsistencies between the policies in the PCRF and rules, if any, in the GGSN may occur, which could lead to that a policy in the PCRF may block an access that was earlier permitted by a rule in the GGSN.